Blog posts about Latvia.

Our month here in Riga is just about over, we leave before the sunrise tomorrow morning. I’ve learned a lot about the history of this country from visiting its museums. The three museums that crystalize the tragedy of this beautiful place are The Occupation Museum, the KGB building and the Holocaust Museum.

We are staying in an apartment on the top floor of an old, brick, apartment building on the edge of Riga’s old town. One of the first things I looked through after arriving was the collection of books displayed in the china cabinet.

We are staying at the edge of the old city of Riga, where there is a concentration of tourism – hotels, restaurants and bars, museums, street vendors, and gift shops.

Arriving in Latvia from Turkey, we were startled by the contrast between the two.

What is an open air museum? Neither of us had heard this term while living in the US, but have visited several since beginning our slow travels, and you have likely visited at least one yourself, perhaps on a school field trip.

Before coming here, I knew very little about Latvia — and I’m still just scratching the surface. But the moment you arrive in Riga, the capital, one thing stands out immediately: the stunning beauty of its Art Nouveau architecture.